Support from the Rank and File

PRESIDENT NIXON'S wage-price freeze has broad backing among consumers, including members of labor unions. This is the finding of a consumer confidence poll taken for TIME by Albert E. Sindlinger last week in the wake of labor leaders' opposition to the President's action. Of a total of 1,114 people polled, 73% thought that the freeze was a good idea, while 16% thought it was not. Union members, in fact, were slightly more favorable than others. While 72% of nonunion households supported the action, 74% of the union members polled backed the President.

The confidence of union members was somewhat shaken by the attacks of labor leaders. When asked if they thought that George Meany and Leonard Woodcock were right in opposing the President's freeze, 37% of the union members agreed with them and 54% thought that they were wrong. The leaders had more support among union men than among union women, who have been doing the shopping in these years of inflation. Only 17% of the women agreed with their stand, while 83% did not. In nonunion households, 20% considered the labor leaders correct and 60% held that they were wrong.

The general public has a different view of union members than the members have of themselves. Asked if Meany and Woodcock spoke for the rank and file of labor in opposing the freeze, 48% of the nonunion respondents thought that they did. Only 42% of the union members considered them to be accurate spokesmen for labor's viewpoint. Union and nonunion people split once again on the question of whether or not union members agreed with the President. While 36% of the nonunion households queried thought that the labor union members whom they knew backed the President, 58% of the union members believed that labor backed him. In sum, President Nixon so far appears to have considerable support for his policy among labor union members.

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